Bihar Government Promotes, Transfers Dead Doctor As Civil Surgeon

A Bihar state health department's notice about the promotion and transfer of a doctor, who died of COVID-19, to the post of a civil surgeon in Sheikpura district has become a matter of embarrassment for the state government.

Opposition leaders strongly criticised the Nitish Kumar government after the state health minister, Mangal Pandey, admitted the state health department's blunder in the Assembly.

When this error surfaced, Dr Sudhir Kumar, the civil surgeon of Rohtas district, was surprised, and he immediately notified the concerned authorities about the mistake.

"Dr Ramnarayan Ram, whose name was in the notification, was in-charge of Bikramganj sub-divisional hospital in Rohtas district. He was diagnosed with corona earlier this year, from which he recovered as well. However, he was not doing fine after the recovery, but he came to work daily. Unfortunately, we lost him on February 7. Dr Ram's son and daughter intimidated us about his death, after which we organised a condolence meeting," Dr Sudhir Kumar told The Logical Indian.

On February 9, Dr Kumar had personally informed the authorities about Dr Ram's death and told them that due to this incident, the post of the civil surgeon was also vacated. "When the financial problem started occurring, due to the loss of Dr Ram, we again informed the government on March 3. In between all these circumstances, the notice with Dr Ramnarayan Ram's name on it got published," Dr Kumar said, adding that he immediately informed the Joint Secretary of Health Department after he saw the notice.

The Bihar health department's blunder was first flagged out by Shiekhpur RJD MLA Vijay Samrat, who displayed the March 8 notification outside the premises of the state assembly. After this, another RJD MLA, Lalit Kumar Yadav, during the zero hour, raised the issue on the floor of the house and demanded a detailed explanation from the government.

The state health minister, in response, said, "Transfer and posting of senior medical officers is a time-consuming affair in which often it takes a gap of about a month between a name getting approved for a new posting and issuing of a notification. Although, the section Officer concerned has been served with a show-cause notice while the Additional Chief Medical Officer of Sheikhpura has been asked to take charge."

When The Logical Indian contacted the Bihar State Health Department Joint Secretary-cum-Chief Vigilance Officer, Anil Kumar, for more information on the matter, he said he is not authorised to say anything.